Opinions on training split
Alright guys so I've read a lot that ideally you want to train a muscle twice a week, depending on what your taking i up to 3 times per week.
Right now I'm pretty busy and have from an hour to an hour an a half max to work out. Good thing i could work out 6 to even 7 times a week.
Now, I've got a question to see what u guys think. Would it be better to work a muscle out once a week but go a lot harder on it and make that workout a lot more intense or would it be better to go down on the sets and the time and do i twice a week? I try doing both. I try taking advantage of all the time i can get in the gym. I do a lot of heavy weights, i do some sets later in my workouts with lower weight higher reps, i do super sets and drop sets. I try to incorporate it all.
An example of my day would be doing chest, and then if i have some more time i do bicep and tricep super setting each exercise. Or if I'm doing back and i have time ill super set some shoulders and traps. Stuff like that. I don't always have time to do more than one muscle.
So what do u guys think is better, hitting every muscle a little less but more often or going ham and doing it once a week?
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Ako994I train small muscles like bicep and tricep and abs, twice a week
EdwardrichNOTICE: This is a fake user affiliated with anabolicenergy.com
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It is not a matter of sacrificing intensity. You go 100% whether 1x or 2x per week.
yeah Makwa is right, you never sacrifice intensity. if you are training bodyparts twice weekly you will sometimes need to sacrifice volume in each individual session. however between the two sessions it should still be more volume than the single session weekly.
a basic example is that if you do back once a week with 20 working sets once a week, you would switch to two sessions weekly and do maybe 12-15 sets each workout. the total volume per session is down, but weekly your total volume is up.
a lot of people think adding more is always the answer. but truthfully your body does not have infinite ability to recover. you cant just continually add more and more.
EdwardrichNOTICE: This is a fake user affiliated with anabolicenergy.com
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i think that for smaller groups like arms, anywhere from 6-8 working sets would be fine. especially if you are hitting them twice a week as well.
super sets and drop sets have their place in a routine like this as well. if you are hitting everything twice a week an easy way to incorporate supersets and things like that would be something like (assuming hypertrophy is your goal)
first back workout: all heavy straight sets in the 8-12 rep range
second back workout: incorporate a wider variety of rep ranges, included supersets/drop sets etc.
these are just examples of ideas, nothing it set in stone. play with it a little bit and decide how you like to do things
to address your other question, i personally wouldnt superset back, then biceps, then delts. working your biceps at the same time as your delts will take away from the work your back can do. i would start with back, then finish with biceps.
BrowncoxNOTICE: This is a fake user affiliated with anabolicenergy.com
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ToddBarNOTICE: This is a fake user affiliated with anabolicenergy.com
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I think it depends on many factors. Whether you are on or off cycle, how your conditioning is (are you used to a lot of volume already?), the muscle itself (abs vs quads for instance), and your GOALS.
Richard.SimmonsWhat are your goals here? Keep muscle, loose fat, etc..... normally when you train chest your hitting your tris a bit also depending on how your gripping the bar. Same with back it also hits you bi's a little. Legs I split between two sessions. Hams and quads. Hams early in the week than quads later in the week. Squats, press will also hit your hams if your lacking in that area. I like to break down legs and focus as much as I can just on my legs. So depending on your goals and what you want to do it all depends?
So many variables come into play here that both methods have merits depending on your goals and how advanced/experienced you are in the gym. For me I get more out of hitting a muscle group 2x/wk. You need to lower the overall volume each workout for that body part if going 2x/wk obviously. So take chest for example, say for a chest the max sets for a 1x/wk session would be 20-22 sets. Totally spent after that so it doesn't pay to do more that workout. When going 2x/wk I'll be hitting chest for 15-16 sets each workout so the weekly increase in intense meaningful sets for that week is obviously greater and the muscles should respond because of it. Even though the volume per workout is less the volume per week is more and this seems to be why I can get better hypertrophy going 2x/wk. Newbs in the gym, 1x/wk is plenty.
If you're someone who struggles putting on weight then short, heavy and intense would be more beneficial. 1 bodypart every 6-10 days to allow for maximum recovery. Remember you grow while feed and rested. Calves can be hit 3 times a week, abs every other day. But if you're hitting the quads hard enough for example then no need to hit them 2-3 times a week, let them recover then pound them again at 100%. Consider your CNS and not to over tax it.